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Indians get their groove back with two conference wins

Coming off disappointing losses at the Governor’s Challenge, the Indian River High School basketball team — then 1-3 — had an unexpected hole to dig themselves out of last weekend, headed into back-to-back Henlopen South matchups against Delmar and Lake Forest. They delivered in both games, taking down Delmar 82-68 on Friday, Jan. 10, and rolling over Lake Forest 76-44 on Saturday, Jan. 11.

Coastal Point • Tripp Colonell: Senior point guard Brian Arthur charges up the court in the Indians' 82-68 victory against Delmar last Friday night.“They played really hard,” said head coach Mike Fabber after last Friday’s win against the Wildcats. “They were a heck of a fight. They had a little longer layover than us — you could tell rust was on both teams. They’re a heck of a team. They fight hard.”

In a fast-paced game that went back and forth until the fourth quarter, the Wildcats wore down in the finals minutes, allowing the Indians to pull away.

“They went man and pressed us a little bit, which kind of helped us to get more into our groove,” explained Fabber. “When they wore down, it’s like we said — we’re going to play deep. Tonight we played everybody. We knew at the end we were going to have that little extra. It kind of was the changing point in the game, but [we] also limited turnovers in the second half.”

In a game that was played and won mostly with transition baskets, senior forward Jaevon “B.B.” Holland excelled — notching 22 points by consistently taking the game into his own hands and driving to the basket early and often.

“Coach just told me, ‘If you’ve got the lane, take it,” Holland said after his impressive performance against Delmar. “‘Don’t worry about the fouls, and if you’re driving and you see somebody open, pass it.’ So I was doing exactly what he told me.”

Holland wasn’t the only Indians basketball star putting up points in that game, however, with junior guard Kei Juan “Skeeter” Major racking up 21 of his own and senior guard Brian Arthur controlling the tempo of the fast-paced game.

“We were just ready [to get back into] the regular season, so we could get back into a winning streak like we’re supposed to do,” explained Holland. “We should have been on a run. We usually get on a run early, but now we got our groove back.”

The Indians went on to roll Lake Forest the next day and improve to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play before heading up to Cape Henlopen last Tuesday, Jan. 14. The Indians fell to the Henlopen North squad 81-61 and fell back to 3-4 overall on the year but remain 2-1 in Henlopen South play.

Holland put up 25 points in that game, with Major and Arthur racking up the bulk of the rest with 12 and 11 points, respectively.

While the Indians are still not where they would have expected to be at the beginning of the season, they have a chance to get back above .500 with two Henlopen South matchups this week. Milford was set to come to town on Thursday, Jan. 16, (after Coastal Point press time), and the Indians will head to Lake Forest on Tuesday, Jan. 21.